Remember COVID? Ireland Dumps Mask Mandates As Scotland Loosens Restrictions

People cross the tram tracks in Dublin City centre in Ireland on May 18, 2020, as Ireland
PAUL FAITH/AFP via Getty Images
Peter Caddle

Ireland and Scotland have both axed a number of restrictions aimed at tackling the Chinese Coronavirus on Monday, with Ireland in particular dumping all of its mask mandates.

As COVID-19 begins to drift out of the international limelight, both Ireland and Scotland have dropped a number of restrictions aimed at combatting the disease.

Ireland had first implemented a regime of forced mask-wearing mandates back in August 2020, with face coverings being required in shops and on public transport ever since.

According to a report by the Irish Times, however, the restrictions forcing commuters and retail customers to wear such face coverings has been scrapped, effective Monday.

Mask wearing for both students and teachers is also no longer mandatory within school settings, with a similar easing also taking place in Scotland, according to the BBC.

The British nation is also scrapping the mandatory use of its NHS COVID passes, a measure that has long since been dumped by both Ireland and fellow UK nation England.

The UK nation’s branch of the NHS had previously come under fire for its COVID passport app, with the Information Commissioner’s Office saying that users were not being clearly informed how their data was being used by the software.

Forced mask-wearing is not the only restriction Ireland is easing either.

Like England before it, the country is also dramatically reducing its testing requirements, with the vast majority of those residing within the republic no longer required to get tested for COVID should they develop symptoms associated with the disease.

Lateral flow testing programmes will still remain in place within early-learning settings, school-aged childcare, primary and secondary schools, however.

Scotland meanwhile is keeping far more restrictions in place, with even the COVID pass regime remaining a voluntary restriction for eligible businesses that wish to enforce it.

Mandatory mask-wearing in shops, hospitality venues and public transport also remains in place within the country, while it remains a recommendation in Ireland to wear such a face covering in these locations, albeit one that is legally unenforceable as of Monday.

As international attention moves away from the COVID-19 pandemic and towards the conflict in Ukraine, many nations have been satisfied with slowly easing restrictions.

England has gotten rid of all of its domestic COVID lockdown restrictions, with even rules regarding mandatory self-isolation for people who catch the disease being dumped last week.

Other nations — such as Germany and Austria — have been far more reticent to restore freedoms though.

While Austria has engaged in some level of easing, authorities in its capital of Vienna last week were accused of trying to sneak forced vaccination for children through the legislative back door by banning some unjabbed kids from schools.

Under local restrictions, unvaccinated children who had multiple classmates test positive for the disease would be forced to stay at home under self-isolation rules — even if they could provide proof of a negative COVID test  — while their jabbed colleagues could continue going to school as normal.

What’s more, remote learning options would not be provided to these kids by public educators, with only a so-called “learning package” being supplied to those unlucky enough to find themselves in this situation.

Meanwhile, Germany’s current health minister has rejected the very use of the term “freedom day”, saying that he expects the country to be dealing with COVID for a decade.

The country has also been extremely slow to lift restrictions, with preliminary easings only set to take place from March 4, compared to the likes of Denmark which abolished all domestic COVID restrictions back in January.

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